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'Ducktor' promotes 10th Rubber Ducky Race

Posted: Wednesday, September 05, 2001

Even to the most ambitious duck hunter, a 200-pound duck might cause one to want to check their glasses or the glass they had been drinking from. At last weeks Kenai Chamber luncheon however most folks just reached into their pockets for a twenty dollar bill to turn over to the good "Ducktor" and Kenai Lions Club member Dennis Swarner.

For the last 10 years the Kenai Lions have been sponsoring the "Lions Kenai River Rubber Ducky Race." This year's race will award $8,000 in cash prizes for the fastest floating rubber ducky on the mighty Kenai River. The race will take place at noon at Cunningham Park on September 8th, when up to 1,000 rubber ducks will be launched into the river.

If you have both a $20 and a $5.00 ticket on the winning ducky, you win $7,000. Separately the $20 ticket will pay $6,000 to win and a $5.00 ticket $1,000. Additionally, the Lions will draw 10 tickets, which will pay $100 each.

The annual event raises money for projects sponsored by the Kenai Lions Club; "All of our money goes back into the community. Lions have always been involved in sight programs ever since Helen Keller days, and this is one of the ways we raise money for these programs," quacked Ducktor Swarner.

The race is a little earlier this year according to the 200 pound yellow duck, "We're a week earlier than usual, and that has to do with the timing of the tides and not duck season, we need our outgoing tide to be about noon when we start the race. Actually we have two races this year, the raffle race for the money, and the business race where local businesses will actually decorate a duck for $100 and that race will be run as a preliminary race to the major event," added the Ducktor.

Tickets can be purchased from any Kenai Lion Club member, or at Kenai Vision Center, Malston's in Kenai, Phil Nash's Law Offices, or Frames & Things in Soldotna.